Forever After
by dead-body-number-2
Summary: Abby and McGee failed to show up for work. What will the team find at McGee's apartment? Very dark, bittersweet story. Please don't read if you get depressed easily. McAbby. Minor Tiva.


**Forever After  
****By dead-body-number-2**

**Author's Note: **Please don't read this story if you are prone to depression.I don't want to give anything away, but it is a bittersweet story I couldn't get out of my head so I wrote it down then debated whether to even publish it. It was hard to write and it may be hard for some to read, but just remember that these are fictional characters.

**Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc., are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.**

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Gibbs was driving to Abby's apartment and he was angry. Abby and McGee had broken one the rules – Never be unreachable. Neither had shown up today and he and the rest of his team had to work a case without them. After they had finished collecting evidence and Ducky had taken the body back to NCIS to be autopsied, Gibbs sent Tony and Ziva to find McGee and went to find Abby himself. She was not at her apartment and was still not answering his calls when his cell phone rang.

"DiNozzo! Tell you found him!"

"We're at Tim's apartment. Jethro … you need to come here now."

Gibbs' blood ran cold. Tony never used his first name and rarely used McGee's. He could only think of one reason for Tony to be so informal.

"Be there in five."

Gibbs spun the car around and began to race towards McGee's home. He soon slowed down realizing, fearing that there was no need to rush. Gibbs received another shock as he pulled into the apartment complex and saw Abby's car parked next to McGee's Porsche.

"_Oh please God no!_" he thought. He parked the car and walked up to the apartment. The door was open and he saw Ziva across the room, sitting down, her back to the wall, her knees drawn up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them, her face buried in her arms. Tony was kneeling beside her and when he noticed Gibbs standing in the doorway he whispered something in her ear and she nodded. Tony stood up and motioned Gibbs to come to the door to the bedroom.

Gibbs hesitated a moment as he steeled himself against what he feared he was about to see, then walked into McGee's bedroom. Abby and McGee lay on the bed, naked, bodies entwined. One pair of lifeless green eyes staring into another. He walked over and lightly touched Abby's face. She was cold. He did the same with McGee though it was obvious that they were both gone. He pulled the sheet up to cover their bodies, but left their heads exposed.

"They left a note."

Gibbs heard Ziva begin to sob and he walked over to take an envelope from Tony then motioned him to take care of Ziva. On the envelope was printed:

"_Whoever finds this note please contact Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs or Special Agent Tony DiNozzo at NCIS headquarters in Washington D.C._"

Gibbs opened it and read the letter inside.

_"Hi Guys! I know this is hard for you, but we thought it was for the best. We made videos for you and our families to try and explain. It's on Tim's computer. Make sure the other videos get to the right people and please don't be too sad."_

It was in Abby's handwriting and signed "Love Abby and Tim."

Gibbs came back into the main room and ask Tony, "Did you watch it?"

"No, we were waiting for you. Look Boss I knew something was going on these past few months, but I just though maybe they were breaking rule twelve. I should have ..."

"Tony, don't blame yourself. They hid this from all of us."

Tony nodded his head. "I'm going to call Ducky and then take Ziva home."

"No!" yelled Ziva as she jumped up. "I have to see it. I have to know why!"

"Yeah. I think we all do." said Gibbs.

Gibbs moved over to McGee's computer desk and gestured for Ziva to sit in the chair. Gibbs stood on her left and Tony was on the right. He reached over and moved the mouse to disengage the screen saver. A video file, labeled "_Goodbye guys_", was already open. Tony moved the mouse to click play, but paused.

"Ready?" Gibbs glared at him. "Right, stupid question."

He clicked play and an image of Abby and McGee appeared on the screen. Ziva sobbed once, but quickly quieted down.

_"Hey guys!" began Abby. "Hope you're all there."_

They were smiling, but it was clear from their reddened eyes that they had also been crying.

_"Guess you're wondering why we did this. The simple answer is that we're sick, we're both dying and …"_

Abby began to cry and McGee hugged her as he began to speak.

_"We both have cancer. I got diagnosed two years ago and Abby about a year and a half ago. Ducky knows if you need details, but we swore him to secrecy about the cancer, but he didn't know about this so please don't blame him. The only reason we even knew about each other is that one day I went to see my oncologist and ran into Abby. "_

By now Abby had regained some of her composure.

_"I thought Ducky had ratted me out and Tim thought the same. Turned out that it was just a coincidence or maybe fate. The reason we didn't tell you guys was that when people know you are sick or dying they treat you different, like you can't do anything yourself or they think they have to make every day special and all that crap. So anyway, we did fight this as long as we could, but lately we've been losing the battle. The doctor says we have about six months and that things will get bad before the end. We decided we don't want to go on like that. We want it on our terms. We hope you guys can understand that._

_Okay next. Ready?" _She turned to McGee. He nodded and smiled.

They simultaneously said, "We got married!" and held their left hands up to the camera. McGee had a simple platinum wedding band and Abby's silver ring had a small skull with rubies for eyes.

Again Ziva began to sob, but not so sadly and did not take her eyes off the screen.

_"We did it about three weeks ago and we are sorry we didn't tell you, but these last few months Abby and I have really cherished our privacy. We spent a lot of time together after we found out that we both were fighting cancer and we kind of got closer a little bit at a time until we realized there was no reason not to go all the way."_

_"Sorry about breaking rule twelve Gibbs," said Abby. "Didn't think you'd mind in this case. Oh, that reminds me."_ Abby picked up a piece of paper with some kind of list on it. _"Okay skipping ahead a bit here. Tony, Ziva. You guys are not fooling anybody. Rule twelve is stupid. Just get together already before it's too late."_

Abby and McGee looked at each other and briefly kissed.

_"Moving along. Jethro. No, not you Jethro, the furry one. We adopted him out to a good home and asked them to let you guys visit if you wanted, The details are in a file labeled Jethro's new family. All right, we said on the envelope about the video message to our families and friends."_

_"Tony if you screw up and erase them or something there are DVD copies in the top left drawer of my writing desk."_ said McGee.

"I promise I won't kid."

McGee continued. _"There are copies of our wills there too. We left most of our assets to charity. The rights to my books went to Sarah and we left a few things to each of you. Tony you get all my TV and stereo stuff. Ducky I know you'll appreciate my record collection and Ziva, you get the Porsche. Sorry Tony."_

Tony swore under his breath, "Son of a …"

_"Boss … Jethro, I thought about it a long time, but I think the thing that would mean the most to you would be my M.I.T. shirts."_

Gibbs smiled and said, "Thanks Tim."

Abby said, _"My turn. Tony gets my CD collection including all my bootlegs, Ziva gets anything she wants from my clothes and jewelry. I know we have different styles Ziva, but I'm sure you'll find something you'll like."_

"I will," Ziva said softly

_"Let my goth friends go through the rest and just give what's left to charity. Let's see, Oh Ducky you can have all my voodoo stuff if you want it through promise you won't try to turn me into a zombie! Okay now, Gibbs. God you always were a tough one to shop for. I thought of giving you the hot rod, but you're a muscle car and pickup kind of guy. I almost left you my locket with my mom's picture into, but that stays with me. Then I found this."_

She held up an old school book.

_"This was my first sign language book from when I was a kid."_

She put down the book and signed 'See spot run. Run spot run.'

Gibbs laughed. Tony and Ziva looked at him, but he didn't explain.

_"And lastly we want to be buried together in my coffin. I wanted us to be naked with him on top of me like we're doing it ,but Tim wussed out and wouldn't go for it."_

_"Abby I told you I do not want to my mom and dad and sister to see that! Mom doesn't even know about the tattoo."_

_"At least I talked him out of the suit and tie. He's going with his MIT hoodie and NCIS cap."_

_"I wanted her in her school girl outfit, but with the platform boots instead of the Mary Janes."_

_"And of course my favorite dog collar. Oh and I'm taking Bert and Tim's taking his typewriter. Well I guess that's everything. Anything else you want to add Timmy."_

_"No, I think I'm ready."_

Abby took out a pillbox and opened to reveal two green capsules.

_"We have here these little things I whipped up in my lab. I promise it will be painless and quick."_

They each picked up one of the capsules and McGee poured them each a glass of Champagne.

Ziva began to sob and cried out, "No, please don't!"

Tony knelt down and put his arms around her. Gibbs place one hand on Ziva shoulder and the other on Tony's.

_"See you guys on the other side."_ said Abby.

Together they said, _"We love you!"_ and swallowed the capsules. Then they began to kiss each other tenderly. McGee reached over to the keyboard, hit a key and the video froze with the last image anyone would ever see of them alive.

The three remained silent for a a few minutes until Tony spoke.

"I'll call Ducky now and take Ziva home Boss."

"No. Let the local PD handle this. You drop off that evidence at NCIS and I'll call Vance and get another team to take over the case. Don't tell Ducky unless he asks. I'll do it."

"Okay Boss. Come on Ziva let's get out of here."

Ziva nodded and stood up, then turned to hug Tony and then Gibbs. As Ziva headed out the door Gibbs stopped Tony briefly and whispered, "Stay with her. I'll come by later."

"On it Boss," said Tony softly.

After Ziva and Tony left Gibbs went into the bedroom again and looked at the bodies of his dead teammates and friends. He leaned over and gave each of them a gentle kiss on the cheek and stroked their hair. He got up to leave, but stopped at the doorway, turned and looked back one last time.

As he turn off the lights he said, "Get some sleep. You've earned it."

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**Author's Note:** Okay so you read it anyway despite the warning. Now go read something fun and if you are seriously depressed please go get help. At least talk to someone.

Anyway I think I had a better last line, but I've forgotten it. If it comes to me I'll make an edit.


End file.
